A convincing victory. Qualification for the knock-out stages. Another clean sheet. A good workout for squad players. No notable injuries picked up. Boateng and Balotelli both taking the opportunity to improve their sharpness. All in all, it could hardly have gone better.
As expected Roberto Mancini rotated his squad. Kolo Toure, Balotelli and Boateng are the most likely of the starters to feature against Bolton.
Continue Reading →Given – Great to see Shay get a game and some slack defending gave him the opportunity to make a couple of saves. A professional showing as you’d expect. 7
Boateng – Showed his quality with some lovely passes down the line for Wright-Phillips. Also timed his tackles impeccably. 7
Continue Reading →City will be looking for their first goals in 3 games at Eastlands when they welcome the Austrian champions tonight. Victory for Roberto Mancini’s side will seal our passage to the knockout stages if Juventus fail to win away to Lech Poznan.
This would be the perfect outcome, otherwise we would be going to Turin needing a result. That could prove tricky and would require a full strength side during a hectic period in the Premier League – a scenario Mancini would like to avoid.
Continue Reading →City slipped to defeat in another game of missed chances that saw them ultimately punished by late goals from the Polish champions after Emmanuel Adebayor had equalised at the start of the second half. The pressure ratchets up another notch on Roberto Mancini as qualification from the Europa League group stages may now require the blues to get a result against Juventus.
As expected Mancini made a host of changes from our last Premier League side, and thankfully returned to the more familiar 4-2-3-1 formation. It was good to see Shay Given start, in a move that will give Joe Hart chance to refocus on his game following a busy spell both on and off the pitch.
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